Author: Gugu Lourie

Tim Hogins has launched Blacqmarket, the first online global marketplace securely backed by a blockchain in South African townships. Hogins is the founder of South Africans Green Outdoor Gyms, GOG Lifestyle Parks (GOG Gardens Soweto) and Happy Island, the biggest water theme park in Africa. Hogins, who hails from Randfontein, owns Hogins Enterprises, a diverse group of companies. A former security guard turned business magnate (serial entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist), says Blacqmarket is an equal opportunity large scale employer, proud supporting SMME entrepreneurship. “We live in unprecedented times. With the constant threat of unemployment, economic downturn and the COVID 19 pandemic…

The BMW brand delivered 560,543 vehicles to customers reflecting a 36.2% rise in the first quarter of this year. With 70,207 units sold in the first quarter of the year, the BMW Group more than doubled its global sales of both plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) and fully electric cars. “Our sales performance was boosted by strong demand for our electrified vehicles, in particular. In the past three months, we doubled our global sales of electrified vehicles compared to the same period last year,” said Pieter Nota, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG responsible for Customer, Brands and…

Naspers unit Prosus Ventures announced on Thursday it has co-led a $350 million (R5 billion) investment in HealthTech company API Holdings, which owns India’s largest integrated digital healthcare platforms. The investment was co-led by Prosus Ventures and TPG Growth. Existing investors including Temasek, CDPQ, LGT Lightrock, Eight Roads & Think Investments also participated in the Series E round. Prosus Ventures (formerly Naspers Ventures)  is the venture investing arm of Prosus that identifies new consumer needs that are being transformed by technology and finds founders and entrepreneurs at companies across the globe who are addressing those needs in the most innovative…

Naspers unit Prosus has co-led a €223 million (R3, 8 billion) investment round in Norwegian e-grocery business, Oda. Oda also rebrands today from Kolonial.no. The startup based out of Oslo offers same-day or next-day delivery of food, meal kits and home essentials. The funding round led by Prosus and SoftBank. Vision Fund 2[1]. Existing investors Kinnevik and REMA both participated in the investment round managed by Carnegie. As part of the transaction, Neil Cunha-Gomes, Investor at SoftBank Investment Advisers, and Roger Rabalais, CFO Food Delivery at Prosus Group, will join Oda’s board. While the food delivery companies within the Prosus portfolio…

T-Mobile is finally bringing the much-hyped 5G Home Internet to households in America. The telco announced today its Un-carrier move, described as a sweeping set of initiatives that mark the beginning of the #5GforAll era. The US-telco said its Home Internet launches today with more than 30 million households eligible and 10 million of which are in rural areas. Over the past few years, billions of dollars have been spent to build 5G networks. Billions more have gone for breathless ads touting the promise of a 5G-powered future. But for most people, 5G has been a total nonevent. Why? Because…

The Dutch arm of South African internet titan Naspers, Prosus announced on Wednesday it would sell a 2% stake in software giant Tencent worth $15 billion (R218 billion) at current prices in an accelerated offering to institutional investors. The sale would lower Prosus stake in Tencent to 28,9% from 30,9%. Prosus intends to use the proceeds of the sale to increase its financial flexibility to invest in growth, plus for general corporate purposes.  “Tencent is one of the world’s best growth enterprises. It has consistently delivered value since listing in 2004. Prosus’s commitment to Tencent remains steadfast,” Prosus Chair Koos…

Signal revealed on its blog on Tuesday is testing Signal Payments, a new feature that enables you to send and receive privacy-focused payments as easily as sending or receiving a message. The new feature is on beta version of its apps. The feature currently supports a privacy-focused payments network called MobileCoin, which has its own currency, MOB. “We want payments in Signal to be fast, private, and work well on mobile devices,” wrote Jun Harada, Signal’s head of growth and communication, in a blog post. Signal Payments makes it easy to link a MobileCoin wallet to Signal so you can…

The M B Ontwikkelings Trust is taking Cell C to court for “wrongfully and culpably” interfering in a contract it has with a large retail outlet that supplies starter packs. The trust, which is situated in Maletswai – previously known as Aliwal North – a town on the Orange River, is demanding more than R21.3 million in damages from the embattled mobile phone company. In papers filed at the Eastern Cape High Court, the trust claims Cell C wrongfully and culpably interfered with its contract with DNI Retail, the largest wholesaler of starter packs for the mobile company in the country. Herman Zurich,…

The U.S Supreme Court on Monday sided with Google against Oracle in a fierce copyright dispute over the software used in Android, the mobile operating system. The court found that Google did not violate the law when it used more than 11,000 lines of software code belonging to Oracle in building its Android mobile operating system. Oracle owns a copyright in Java SE, a computer platform that uses the popular Java computer programming language. In 2005, Google acquired Android and sought to build a new software platform for mobile devices. To allow the millions of programmers familiar with the Java programming…

LG Electronics Inc. (LG) announced on Monday that it is closing its cash-guzzling mobile business worldwide. The South Korean firm said the decision to exit the mobile phone sector will enable it to focus resources in growth areas such as electric vehicle components, connected devices, smart homes, robotics, artificial intelligence, platforms and services. LG said in a statement the decision was approved by its board of directors earlier today. “The wind down of the mobile phone business is expected to be completed by July 31 although inventory of some existing models may still be available after that,” the company said.…